Press Release
23.10.2024 | New Delhi: Close to 200 individuals and civil society groups, representing a wide range of social movements, campaigns, and grassroots organisations and campaigns in a statement have called for the creation of a new democratic and decentralised financial system that prioritises sustainability and equality. They are demanding the shutdown of the Bretton Woods institutions—the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)—to pave the way for more democratic, public-spirited institutions.
For the past 80 years, the World Bank and IMF have globalised a model of development and financialisation rooted in the colonial logic of extraction and exploitation. These institutions have facilitated the continuous transfer of wealth from the Global South to the Global North while trapping nations in deep debt and depriving them of sovereignty over their natural resources.
The statement strongly criticises the policies of the World Bank and IMF, which have led to the privatisation of essential public services, including water, electricity, education, healthcare, and transportation. Brought about steep cuts in social protection and welfare programs, labour market deregulation, drastic wage cuts, contractualisation of labour, and the reduction or elimination of food and agriculture subsidies which have resulted in widespread hunger and food insecurity. These policies have disproportionately impacted the rural and urban working classes, poor communities, women, small-scale food producers, indigenous peoples, and other marginalised groups.
The statement was endorsed by a range of civil society organisations and highlights the eight decades of the World Bank and IMF which have entrenched a global financial system that perpetuates inequality, displaces communities, and destroys livelihoods. Instead of fostering development, these institutions have promoted policies that worsen poverty and accelerate climate change while consolidating wealth and power in the Global North.
Despite the harm they have caused to societies, economies, and the environment, the World Bank and IMF have remained immune from accountability. The civil society groups said that they believe these institutions are beyond reform, as their governance structures and market-driven economic paradigms are too deeply embedded in the status quo to enable meaningful change.
The civil society statement called for a complete shutdown of the Bretton Woods institutions and the creation of new global institutions based on democratic, decentralised economic governance, equality, and sustainability. These new institutions must prioritise equality, sustainability, and the needs of all nations, not just a select few.
Read the full statement here.